MS13 [Mara Salvatrucha ] : America's Deadliest Gang
In the U.S., the MS-13 has an especially heavy presence in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California; the Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas of Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Prince George's County, Maryland; Long Island, New York; the Boston, Massachusetts area; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Houston, Texas. There is also a presence of MS-13 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Roots of Mara-Salvatrucha 13:
There is disagreement as to where MS-13 gang originated, some believe it's roots are in El Salvador, but one of the early members, Alex Sanchez, states that the gang actually started in the 1980's in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, California, as a group of "stoners" and heavy-metal music enthusiasts who were recent arrivals from El Salvador (See the National Geographic show Explorer, which premiered February 12, 2006 and the reporter was Lisa Ling, episode title: World's Most Dangerous Gang).
In the 1980's as civil war erupted in El Salvador an estimated 1 million Salvadoran fled to the United States. A large number of these recent Salvadoran arrivals settled in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, which was a low-income community already plagued with gangs and crime. The already existing Mexican-American population who inhabited that area were not particularly welcoming of the new group, this included the established Mexican-American gangs. The immigrant Salvadoran youth were marginalized by these local gangs.
In response to victimization suffered by the Salvadorian youth they formed a group who at first were just "stoners," but later developed into a very dangerous gang calling themselves Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Mara is a Spanish or Central-American slang word meaning gang. The meaning of Salvatrucha is unknown, but it likely means Salvadorans on alert since the root word is Salva and the preceding "trucha" means to be alert. The number 13 represents the letter M and is a number used by many gangs who are linked to the California prison-gang, the Mexican Mafia.
Today more than 100,000 members can be found throughout 33 states in America and more than 40,000 in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and even Canada. The FBI believes that members of MS-13 are involved in drug-trafficking and sales, extortion, kidnapping, gun-trafficking and sales, racketeering, robbery, rape, murder and many other crimes. The sophistication of violence made MS-13 a feared gang and it earned special attention from various law enforcement agencies. Some of the members of MS-13 were found to be ex-military and many had extensive military training in El Salvador and in the School of the Americas (U.S. led military training camp developed in the 1970's).
After committing crimes gang-members are usually deported back to their country of birth. As MS-13 members were sent back to countries with weak political and police infrastructures they found themselves lost and unwanted. They landed on an airplane with no luggage and only with the clothes on their back. Some of the deportees no longer had family members in their home countries and they found their second family with the gangs strong presence. The deportees' shared one thing in common, tattoos, lack of education and violent pasts. They arrived without roots in an estranged country that was quite different from the American inner-city neighborhoods were they learned one thing, gang culture
Title: National Geographic - MS13 [Mara Salvatrucha ] : America's Deadliest Gang - Full Documentary HD
Published on Jul 28, 2016
Uploaded by: Nat Geo Full HD
The Roots of Mara-Salvatrucha 13:
There is disagreement as to where MS-13 gang originated, some believe it's roots are in El Salvador, but one of the early members, Alex Sanchez, states that the gang actually started in the 1980's in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, California, as a group of "stoners" and heavy-metal music enthusiasts who were recent arrivals from El Salvador (See the National Geographic show Explorer, which premiered February 12, 2006 and the reporter was Lisa Ling, episode title: World's Most Dangerous Gang).
In the 1980's as civil war erupted in El Salvador an estimated 1 million Salvadoran fled to the United States. A large number of these recent Salvadoran arrivals settled in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, which was a low-income community already plagued with gangs and crime. The already existing Mexican-American population who inhabited that area were not particularly welcoming of the new group, this included the established Mexican-American gangs. The immigrant Salvadoran youth were marginalized by these local gangs.
In response to victimization suffered by the Salvadorian youth they formed a group who at first were just "stoners," but later developed into a very dangerous gang calling themselves Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Mara is a Spanish or Central-American slang word meaning gang. The meaning of Salvatrucha is unknown, but it likely means Salvadorans on alert since the root word is Salva and the preceding "trucha" means to be alert. The number 13 represents the letter M and is a number used by many gangs who are linked to the California prison-gang, the Mexican Mafia.
Today more than 100,000 members can be found throughout 33 states in America and more than 40,000 in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and even Canada. The FBI believes that members of MS-13 are involved in drug-trafficking and sales, extortion, kidnapping, gun-trafficking and sales, racketeering, robbery, rape, murder and many other crimes. The sophistication of violence made MS-13 a feared gang and it earned special attention from various law enforcement agencies. Some of the members of MS-13 were found to be ex-military and many had extensive military training in El Salvador and in the School of the Americas (U.S. led military training camp developed in the 1970's).
After committing crimes gang-members are usually deported back to their country of birth. As MS-13 members were sent back to countries with weak political and police infrastructures they found themselves lost and unwanted. They landed on an airplane with no luggage and only with the clothes on their back. Some of the deportees no longer had family members in their home countries and they found their second family with the gangs strong presence. The deportees' shared one thing in common, tattoos, lack of education and violent pasts. They arrived without roots in an estranged country that was quite different from the American inner-city neighborhoods were they learned one thing, gang culture
Title: National Geographic - MS13 [Mara Salvatrucha ] : America's Deadliest Gang - Full Documentary HD
Published on Jul 28, 2016
Uploaded by: Nat Geo Full HD
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